December 18, 2017: The internet in India has a serious gender problem.

Just 29% of all internet users in the country are female, according to a report (pdf) by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The 42 percentage point “digital gender gap” among internet users in India is far more extreme than the global divide. Across the world, 56% of all internet users were men in 2017, compared to 44% women.

For the most part, this gap is a result of deep-seated cultural barriers, particularly in rural India. “One village governing body in rural Rajasthan stated that girls were not to use mobile phones or social media,” the UNICEF report said. “Another village in Uttar Pradesh banned unmarried girls from using mobile phones (and from wearing jeans).”

Read full article: India's Internet Has a Massive Gender Problem (Quartz, qz.com)